Electric Motorcycles: What a farce

Ok this post has been coming for a while now and I've had enough of the clap trap going around in the motorcycle media that these things are the best thing since sliced bread. Yes the electric motorcycle. Even that term 'electric motorcycle' is a farce.  For starters to be classified as a motorcycle it simply needs to have an engine not a clumsy battery pack and electric motor. These are no more than electric bicycles in my eye's and they are the the future of motorcycles they say.

Motorcycles are about passion, something that should illicit a response that makes the senses tingle with excitement that make you feel alive, feel something. That roar of the crossplane R1 or the V4 RSV something that raises the hackles on the back of your neck. I feel nothing when I hear an electric bike, soulless.

Let me show you what I mean. The following is an electric farcycle.

Video above borrowed from Night fury youtube channel.

Do I know that electric motors are more efficient than petrol engines. Sure I do. Do I care. Not one bit. I won't be riding my bike at 14,000 ft at pikes peak so its meaningless that your ebike performance is better at altitude.

Do I know that Ebikes are cheaper to run. Duh, yes. Do you know that ebikes are more expensive to buy and more inconvenient to operate.

Do you ebike lovers care that you have to sit around for hours waiting for your battery to charge every 200km. Yeah thats fucken convenient. And what if all the chargers are being used so you have to wait 2 hours before you can put yours on for 2 hours. Fuck off.

Now listen to some pure 1 litre gas guzzling brilliance.....

Video above borrowed from Riccardo Parigi youtube channel.

Until an electric bike is on par with what the current crop of bikes can deliver I can't see them taking off with the exception of the inner city muppet er I mean the inner city metro-sexual hipster with his man bun riding around in amongst all those cars with their distracted drivers on their phones and the hipsters on their nice quiet unseen, unheard e-bikes. Maybe it's not all bad.....

I've been riding motorcycles for over 25 years now. I love the the fact I am sitting on top of a noisy mechanical internal combustion engine, a masterpiece of over 100 years of refinements and riding with the wind in my face, the adrenaline rush that comes with hitting the perfect apex, corner after corner and the roar of that inefficient, noisy gas guzzling engine below. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Would I ever ride and E-bike? Sure why not, but you won't catch me buying one. Call me old, call me a dinosaur. I, for one will never ever own an electric bicycle, the soulless and passionless.

Electric motorcycles are the future they say.

FUCK OFF I SAY.

Oh the pain....

Regular readers will know a good friend of mine, Stu from many posts on my blog, he's a regular rider with us and Post classic racer. A few years back Stu had a big highside on turn 12 at Phillip Island during the post classic racing and there's been rumours of video of this but until now has only just surfaced.

Now for anyone that hasn't ridden Phillip island this turn is around the 160-180kmh mark, so its not slow by any stretch. I would not like to crash here put it that way.

The crash in Stu's words 'Oh the Pain'. In our words "Holy shit...that's gotta hurt.....ouch". And so he was named captain collarbone.




For a little perspective. The V8 supercars race at the island and back in 1997 Greg Murphy came off the track at turn 12 at 160kmh about how fast Stu would have been doing.

 

Two Ferries Ride

Sunday was a glorious sunny winters day here in old Sydney town with a top of 18°C. The wife and kids were still in bed at 9am so I decided I'd head out and enjoy a ride around some local roads that I haven't travelled in some time. First up I'd misplaced my key from last ride. Checked everywhere, jacket pockets, desk etc with no luck and finally found it where? Yes in the bikes ignition from last ride. Lucky no one was breaking in to steal it.

Just a short ride today so I thought I'd do the two ferries of Sackville and Lower Portland with lunch at Wisemans Ferry Hotel. Heading up through Maralaya and Cattai I turned down Sackville Ferry Road.

First stop for some pics was just after I'd crossed the Sackville Ferry Crossing, there's a little elevated lookout on the Windsor side where I grabbed the camera for a couple of quick pics.

Selfie R1 Goodness

Wing? Looks more like a lounge

A group of 12 Goldwings came down the ramp and filled up the back of the ferry. Here's one of the colourful wings above with the ferry half loaded with wings below.

Comfort Machine

Not so Comfort Machine

Sackville and Lower Portland Ferries cross the Hawkesbury River. The river is a great location for water skiing and as I was sitting there taking these pics a ski boat flew through, followed by the skier.

I moved on along the West Portland road and up into the hills. There's some nice countryside on the outskirts of Sydney but I've notice how the city is gradually moving out into these areas, one day to be swallowed by the urban sprawl. I stopped on the Greens Road bridge for a look and couple more pics before moving down to the Lower Portland Ferry.

Lower Portland Ferry

These were the only police I saw out today and there was no chance of them giving me a ticket unless I rode into the river.

Wombats hiding in the bushes

Arriving at the ferry gates I was surprised I was the only person there and got pole position on the ferry. There was a father and daughter out fishing along the river bank.

Ferry Selfie Goodness

Disembarking the ferry puts you on River road, which you guessed it takes you along the river. There are sand stone cliff faces on one side of the road with river views on the other side and the road is very narrow here, making for slow going but is still a fun ride.

I was surprised to see some autumn colours here with it being the middle of winter, very pretty.

As you can see below not much room for 2 cars along here with rock faces and over the guard rail is the river.

This sandstone rock face is cut right out and hangs right over the road. The sign said no stopping Rock falling. I couldn't see any falling rocks so I stopped for some pics.


This whole area of the Sydney basin is covered in sand stone rock formations and well out into the blue mountains. It can be quite amazing in the right light.

All these stops for pics I was starting to get hungry. I checked the time and it was 1:40pm. So I decided no more stops and get into Wisemans Ferry Hotel for some lunch.

Wisemans Ferry Hotel

Wisemans Ferry Hotel is always a popular lunch stop on a sunday afternoon. There are always many bikes here plus Sydney day trippers, it's a great little spot and they serve great food too. I decided on the fish and chips for lunch and it was as delicious as it looks.





It was around 2:30pm by the time I rolled out of there with one last stop at Hawkins lookout before heading home. A short ride with one tank of fuel but an enjoyable day out. I'm missing my wingman Geoff as the rides have been few and far between this year. Hope your back on the bike soon mate, you're missing out on these glorious winter days and rides.

Hawkesbury River and Webs Creek Ferry.

#Time to Go

Yamaha - Rossi is never going to win another title. Its time for him to go. There are plenty of faster younger guys coming through.